Indiana

June 27th, my friend Leslee married her Michael. I went back to Indiana for the wedding. It was absolutely beautiful. The festivities kicked off with the rehearsal at Deep River Park in Chesterton, IN. It's got a beautiful gazebo next to a mill. It also, as you can see from the middle picture, has a sprinkler system. Michael's son Travis and the flower girl, Bella, had a grand old time that afternoon. Dinner was at a local pizza parlor in Valpo. Hadn't had pizza in awhile. After working at the K-Bar for two years kind of ensured that I've been off that sort of food for awhile. But it was good. Afterwards, us ladies went to Bon Femmes and then the Franklin house in Valpo.

The next morning, it was time for hair and makeup. It took us a little while to get to the parlor since the soapbox derby was on the same street.

Leslee getting made up

My fancy hair-do

Breakfast at Jimmy's. Local breakfast place in Valpo. Cheap, good eats. Surprisingly, we were not the first bridal party there.

Leaving Chris' house in Valpo

Me and Leslee in the limo. Yes, we were just that fancy to ride in a limo. It was nice not to have to drive, but other than that, I'll say "meh."

I walked with Michael's friend Jeremy down the aisle. He was pretty funny. It made the time go faster. And, despite the heels on the cobblestones, I didn't trip. Yay me! Travis and Isabelle walking down the aisle. They were so stinkin' cute it hurt.

The ceremony was absolutely beautiful. Well, except for the part where the kids got bored and Travis kept trying to get "Lolly and Daddy" to look over at him. Luckily, I don't think most of the audience could hear him. By the way, I have to comment that I LOVE secular weddings. 15 minutes. Thank goodness, my silver sandals were reflecting the sun and my feet were HOT.
There was time between the ceremony and the reception so we went to Northside and played darts.

We stuck around for about an hour after the ceremony taking pictures. By that time, Travis had missed his nap and was crankier than all heck. He did not want to be in any of the pictures. Plus, he had all of these adults around him trying to convince him that he should go here and do that. Frankly, I don't blame him for not wanting to be involved. So, his cousin took him under his wing and made sure that he didn't fall in the river.



As the maid of honor, I had one duty. Leslee's only request, Don't cry. I didn't.
My toast:
Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl... isn't so sure. But Girl has recently made a vow to accept any and all offers... so, Girl says "Yes." Boy and Girl date. But... Girl still isn't sure. One night, girl wakes up in a panic. She LOVES Boy. Luckily, he loves her too. Henry David Thoreau once said of love, "There is no remedy but to love more." So, ladies, gentleman, please join me in raising your glasses to this boy, to this girl, to their new family, and the hope that, as they walk through life, they will only love more.

The dancing was awesome. On the left, my friend Jenica managed to pull her husband Steve onto the dance floor. It's impressive that a) she was able to get him out there and b) she was dancing at 4 (5?) months pregnant. People hung around until about 10:30. Leslee's mom and I were the last ones left. Michael and Leslee took off in the limo... and I got to go home after a lovely day.

YA Grand Opening

About a month ago, I attended the grand opening of the Yellowstone Association's new building. It's actually an old building in Gardiner. Built in 1903, the building was designed by Robert Reamer, one of the mot famous names in park architecture. he was actually pulled off the job to create and build the Old Faithful Inn.
The building was originally used as the town Mercantile. It was owned by W. C. Hall and run by his family for years. For a long time it was also known as Cecil's. There were ten foot high letters spelling out the name of the restaurant in bright yellow which was originally outlined in neon.
As I understand it, YA had been looking for a new building for some time. When the Cecil's building (housing a video store, a laundromat, and gift shop when I moved here), came up for sale, the park asked YA to buy it so that the rumored hotel/casino couldn't be built on the site. The fourteenth of June was the grand opening.

Suzanne Lewis, the superintendent of Yellowstone came and gave some opening remarks.
There was quite a crowd that showed up. I believe it was for a chance at free cake. But that might be too cynical.
Each area had a poster outlining what they do for the Association.






All in all a very nice opening and great to see the community come out and hpopefully begin to understand what the Association does and what it's about.

Gardiner on a Monday night

Carrie's house

Garage Sales and more

For the third year in a row, I have hosted a garage sale at my garage. Many things were the same as usual. I had very few things to put in. Carrie Guiles was an excellent co-host. We had many, many people bring items to the sale. Carrie contributed the use of her Wii, to the delight of neighborhood children. Breakfast casserole, mimosas and various other drinks were provided. Wonderful things.
But this year, we also stepped it up a notch. Most of the proceeds this year went to the Sweetgrass Humane Society. A new kitting wing is currently being added to the building. We also had many, many more people donate items. All told, I think there were 12-15 people putting items in this year. I don't have a picture but there were two clothes rods for hanging items and something like eight or nine tables full of clothes and other items. The first week was tons of fun. People showed up in droves. We had both customers and sellers. The Wii was a big draw, and of course, we had several people ask if it was for sale. I guess it was technically in the garage but it didn't have a price tag. The second week brought back many more customers but not as many sales people. I had also forgotten, when we planned the garage sale, that I had said that I would volunteer for the Yellowstone Days second annual fun run. I was set up at the first water station and got a good look as the runners got started. It was a good day for a run. Not particularly warm but not too too cold out. I handed out water and yelled encouragement and got some very strange looks for it but I had fun.
After the sale was over, Emily, Carrie, Mariah and I went to another sale up the valley. We then tried to look for another sale that was supposed to be futher up the way. Couldn't find it, but no one except Mariah had had lunch so we decided to go to Pine Creek. It was closed and we decided to just finish up by heading into Livingston. We had a perfectly delightful late lunch at the Rib and Chop House. The poor waitress. Carrie drove so she was fine but the rest of us had luncheon cocktails (the plural being one for each, not multiples for all of us). We were all giddy from sitting outside, then the drive and then watching the snow come down. Yes, 'twas snowing on the sixth of June. Anyway, we then went back to Carrie's. My pants were bothering me so I borrowed some shorts from Carrie. Running outside to the car, I put together this very charming ensemble. Note the sunburn on my face as well as the pot roast stain at the bottom of my shirt. I've always been a fashionista.

Bookmobile

It's that time of year. The seasonals have arrived and the Yellowstone Research Library Bookmobile is once again on the move. It's a very basic thing. Once a month, the librarians (or, more often, our seasonals) take a couple of boxes of books around the park in order to help provide research access to people around the park.I took a couple of pictures at our stop at Old Faithful. On the left is a picture of our general setup. We get to a stop, pop open the back and then sit for awhile and hope that people will come and use the services that we provide. The other pictures are purely for creating jealousy. The first is a picture of Old Faithful going off. This is the view we have from the bookmobile. The second shows the snow that was still in the park at the end of may. The third is a half picture of one of our new interns, Jessica driving past one of the three bears we saw during our trip. He was just hanging out next to the road playing in the puddle. Interesting fact we found out at our mandatory training session, there have been no injuries committed by a bear during a bear jam (when tens to hundreds of cars stop and disgorge their passengers to stop and stare at bears) since 1977. Too bad the picture is somewhat blurry.

Going back to Indiana

I flew back to Indiana the last weekend of May to help my mother host a bridal shower for my soon-to-be Cousin Emily. I've added some pictures from my train ride on the South Shore. I have to say, coming back to Indiana that way is incredibly relaxing. I mean, you do have to get off the plane, get to the El and then make your way to the South Shore. It also takes an extra hour or two but it gives you time to de-stress and just hang out a bit. After living in the West for so long, it's easy to forget how very green everything is when you have more humidity and precipitation. Even the tree branch that fell off the neighbor's house was just lush.
Saturday morning, my aunt Christine and my mother got up at 5 (!) to start getting food for the party ready. They made crepes (tied with chives), cake, brownies, and many other dishes that required extensive preparation. Of course, the most popular dish were the stuffed biscuity-things that took all of 15 minutes to make. Isn't that always the way?
Around 1, everyone started to show up. It was mostly Emily's family and mine, with a few friends of my Aunt Sue (the MOG) and my mother's. We sat and chatted for quite a time. It was very fun. Then, we pulled out the games. I was in charge of getting them set up.
First, was the wedding-themed word jumble. My family was very put out by this game while Emily's excelled. I was told (by relatives) that I should never do that again. They weren't very good at it and apparently didn't enjoy the experience. Then, was the toilet paper wedding dress. I hadn't wanted to play this game. I don't think it's very fun. But I got to opt out as the coordinator and the photographer. Everyone who played had a lot of fun though. And the dresses were quite...inventive.
It was getting warm in the afternoon so we moved out to the porch to open gifts. Emily received many wonderful things and was super gracious about it all. As we were siting out there, a student driver came by. This is not unusual. My parents live on a well-traveled road but it is not so busy that students cannot practice their parallel parking skills. There are almost always cars on the street to help with this opportunity. That day, the instructor chose the car in front of my parent's house. After the student was done, the instructor opened the door to check proximity to the curb. We burst into applause. He blushed and commented that that had never happened to him before. We all laughed and they moved on.
That evening, my parents, my aunts Chris and Sue, Sue's husband Walt, and the bride and groom went to Wheeler and had pizza and fun. In so many ways, it is so much easier to enjoy your family when you are all grown. I've included a picture of my mom (on the right) with her two sisters. They are all so much fun. I'm glad that I get to have the same kind of relationship with my brother now.
I also got to check in with my dear friend Leslee who is getting married at the end of this month. She modeled her dress, we went shopping and then I got to see the place where Leslee is getting married. It is a park in Hebron... or Merrillville... or Chesterton. I'm not sure. This gets into geography. And they all overlap with each other in that area. It goes back and forth a couple of times between them all and it's very confusing. Especially for the map-reading impaired such as myself.
Overall a wonderful trip.

Another long absence

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know at this point this is more a diary than anything else, but I feel like I should be keeping it up. There's been a lot going on lately. I'll try to get some pictures and posts up about going back to IN for a whirlwind weekend of wedding stuff, training our new staff, garage sales and all of the other stuff that's been going on lately. Summers in Gardiner are always full-packed. I think it's 'cause we have to shove all of our socializing and activities into roughly two and a half months of the year. There haven't been any barbecues this year yet. It's partly because of burnout from last summer, part from not having the yard ready to go, and part from sheer laziness. Hopefully I'll get it all together next weekend and we'll be able to have a party on the 20th before the second day of the Gardiner rodeo. Oh my gosh, that's the weekend after next. And then, that next Thursday I'm back in Indiana for two weeks. And then it's July. JULY people! Where does time go? I swear I'm going to blink and it will be September again.